Mary Ellen Matthews for Variety This interview is part of Variety and CNN’s Actors on Actors series. Watch the full video interview now at CNN.com/Watch (or on the CNN app) and on Variety’s YouTube channel starting at 11:59 pm ET.
Josh Hutcherson and Elizabeth Banks first met making the first four “Hunger Games” films, from 2012 to 2015. While Banks wasn’t present for the action sequences Hutcherson shot in the Hunger Games arena, they struck up a friendship. When the franchise began, Hutcherson, then 19, was a former child actor (“Zathura,” “The Kids Are All Right”), and Banks, then 37, was a well-known character actress (“Seabiscuit,” “W.”). Both also stood out this year for taking on roles as partners in complicated relationships. On “I Love L.A.,” Hutcherson is Dylan, the relatively sane, grounded boyfriend of Rachel Sennott’s zany aspiring talent manager, Maia. And on “The Miniature Wife,” Banks plays a writer who is quite literally shrunken down by her scientist husband, played by Matthew Macfadyen.
Elizabeth Banks: It’s so good to see you.
Josh Hutcherson: Good to see you. We met 43 years ago.
Banks: Do you remember how we met? I don’t totally remember either.
Hutcherson: I remember the project. It was called “The Hunger Games.”
Banks: You were Peeta Mellark; I was Effie Trinket.
Hutcherson: I live near a street named Effie. Every time I drive past it, I’m like, “Elizabeth.”
Banks: I’m excited to be on your mind. My first memories of “The Hunger Games” — I remember seeing you guys the first few days, but then I left and came back, because you guys went into the woods.
Hutcherson: Yeah, they were painting me into rocks and shit.
Banks: I remember coming back, and you guys were this feral gang of young people.
Hutcherson: I was 19. I didn’t do college, so college for me was shooting those movies and growing up with them. It’s so long ago.
Banks: I felt like your auntie. I was everyone’s auntie. And then I really got to relax on the second one, because there were a lot more adults my age. Obviously, “The Hunger Games” was life-changing for you and Jennifer Lawrence and Liam Hemsworth. What was that like? We had so much fun on the press tours.
Hutcherson: It was crazy. It was such a massive machine, and it was such a formative time of my life. We all went through so many changes together. We leaned on each other, hard-core. It was really intimidating. I’m from a small town in Kentucky. I started acting when I was a kid because I liked the idea of making movies. Fame was never on my radar — and then I was thrust into that world in such a big way. It was a lot.
Banks: It was like watching a supernova take off.
Hutcherson: For a long time, I was resentful toward it, because I didn’t want that kind of attention.
Banks: There’s a huge intrusion into your life.
Hutcherson: So I was chip-on-my-shoulder angry about it. With years of perspective, I have grown to appreciate it so much.
Banks: Are you excited for the new movies?
Hutcherson: The new book’s amazing. It’s cool to see it continue with a different generation and different stories. Unfortunately, it’s still a very timely issue with authoritarian governments, so young people need to be educated.
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